Tag Archives: Exodus

Daily Bible Study

January 19, 2020 Bible Study — God Is, Whether We Accept Him Or Not

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 4-6.

I wrote yesterday about Moses’ reluctance to following God’s calling to go back to Egypt.  He continues with that in today’s passage, but I am not going to spend any more time on that. Except for this bit to encourage you to think about Moses’ interaction in today’s passage.

What I want to focus on is Pharaohs answer when Moses first demanded he let the Israelites to worship God and God’s answer to Moses when Moses complained that going to Pharaoh had just made things worse.  Pharaoh responded to Moses and Aaron by saying, “Who is he? and why should I listen to what he says?”  Some context, the Pharaohs considered themselves the son of one of their gods, usually the chief god.  They were the ultimate authority on what the gods wanted.  So, really what Pharaoh was saying was, “Who are you to speak on behalf of the gods?” 

Which brings us to God’s answer, the answer He gives to everyone who doubts His power and authority.  To understand that answer we need to consider the Hebrew derivation of God’s name, Yahweh or YHWH.  YHWH is closely related to the Hebrew word for “to be”.  When God told Moses, “I am YHWH,” He was telling him that He was that which is, that everything else existed only because He existed.  Pharaoh rejected God’s authority over him.  Moses went to God and said, in essence, “See, I told you so. I am not the right man to convince Pharaoh.”  God’s answer was that Pharaoh had no more ability to reject doing His will than he had of rejecting gravity. 

Daily Bible Study

January 18, 2020 Bible Study — God Calls Moses

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I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 1-3.

Many modern biblical scholars doubt that there is any historical accuracy to the Book of Exodus, and many even question if it is historical at all.  I will state that I believe the Book of Exodus is both historical and accurate with the understanding that it was written to show God’s power.  In my opinion, Joseph would have lived around the time of the Egyptian Thirteenth Dynasty, which ended as a result of famine.  The information we have on that time leaves me unsure if he arrived during the reign of one of the last Pharaohs of the 13th Dynasty, or during the Hyksos period which followed.  Every time I read anything about Egyptian history around the time of the Hyksos I cannot help but see several events which parallel the Exodus account.  One thing which struck me several years ago and sticks with me still is the similarity between Moses and the names of several Pharaohs.  Since Hebrew does not have any vowels, Moses would have been written without the O or E.  Which means it would resemble the end of Ramses.  The construction of Ramses is the name of the god Ra followed by mses.  There are other names of Pharaohs with similar construction derived from other gods.  Since the name of God could not be written, Moses would be “blank”mses.

I have more thoughts about the ways in which the Exodus account lines up with history as we know it, but I would like to spend a little time on things the writer would have considered more important.  When God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses was reluctant to take up God’s call to him.  In fact, Moses’ response looks a lot like how most of us respond to God’s call, “No, no, I’m not the one you want for this task. I don’t have what it takes.”  God’s answer to us is the same as His answer to Moses, “I will be with you.”  And just as Moses did, we tend to argue with God, but He has an answer for every one of our objections.  Some of those answers are no more than “I AM who I AM.”